Arch-conservative Republican Louis Gohmert started it off with a personal attack on Mr. Strzok: " I can't help but wonder, when I see you looking there with a little smirk, how many times did you look so innocent into your wife's eye and lie to her about Lisa Page?" (Ms. Page was the reported recipient of the tweets about Mr. Trump)

Later in the hearing, Mr. Strzok told House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, ""If you want to represent what you said accurately I am happy to answer that question, but I don't appreciate what was originally said being changed."

Mr. Gowdy responded, "I don't give a damn what you appreciate, Agent Strzok...I don't appreciate having an FBI agent with an unprecedented level of animus working on two major investigations during 2016."

Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY) called the hearing a "kangaroo court," and "not worth of an Ace Ventura investigation."